Boeing made a splash on the first day of the Farnborough Airshow with large and strategically important order announcements, demonstrating that airlines remain confident in the U.S. airframer's ability to overcome its well documented challenges.

Korean Air committed to buying up to 50 of Boeing's widebody airplanes, including twenty 777-9s and twenty 787-10s with options for 10 more of the largest 787 Dreamliner variant. The new agreement comes on top of the expansion of the airline’s firm backlog of 22 Boeing 737 Max jets and seventeen 787s.

GE Aerospace and Kratos Turbine Technologies (KTT), a division of Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, signed a memorandum of understanding at Farnborough on Monday to develop and produce a family of small, affordable turbofan engines. Intended to meet the rapidly expanding market for powering a range of unmanned air vehicles, the engines could power collaborative combat aircraft (CCAs, “loyal wingmen”), loitering munitions, and cruise missiles. The deal will replace an earlier joint development agreement that also covers full-scale production.

Kratos, which has developed a range of disruptive unmanned air systems, has been working on a small turbofan for some time, which KTT has ground-tested. Kratos partnered with GE over a year ago to further development, resulting in the new GEK family, starting with the GEK800 engine offering 800 pounds of thrust. Developed with scalability in mind, the design delivers a ceiling thrust level of around 3,000 pounds. The first engines are almost ready for further testing, with altitude trials due to begin next year at GE’s facilities in Evendale, Ohio.

A resurgent De Havilland Canada secured an order seven Dash 8-400s and launched a new refurbishment program for the global turboprop fleet. The announcements accompanied confirmation of sales of one of the big turboprops to Skyward Express, another to Tanzania's Government Flight Agency, and a pair to Wideroe Airlines of Norway. Separately, the company signed a deal to supply a quick-change freighter kit to Advantage Air.

In 2018, DHC, then Viking Air, launched a program to convert and upgrade previously used CL-215 aircraft into the CL-415 Enhanced Aerial Fighter. To date, nine of 11 aircraft have undergone the upgrades.

The Anglo-Italian-Japanese consortium developing the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP) sixth-generation fighter has unveiled the latest iteration of the aircraft’s design. New models and graphics show a configuration with a large, near-delta shaped wing, broadly similar to that of other sixth-generation fighter projects taking shape in Europe and on the U.S.

That the configurations are similar is no great surprise, as operational requirements are similar, said Herman Claesen, BAE Systems’ managing director for future combat air systems. “They all need to go far, carry lots of stuff, and to do it with low observability,” he stressed.

While Airbus maintained a bit of a low profile on the first day of the Farnborough Airshow, announcing just one order from Royal Bhutan Airlines for three A320neos and two A321XLRs, it used the show to celebrate Cebu Pacific (CEB)’s purchase of up to 152 A321neo aircraft, the largest aircraft order in Philippine aviation history. The partners signed the binding memorandum of understanding earlier this month and covers firm orders for up to 102 A321neos, plus 50 A320neo family purchase rights. CEB has selected Pratt & Whitney GTF engines to power the aircraft.

“This latest order demonstrates the growing opportunities for aviation in the Philippines and the larger Asia Pacific region,” said Rick Deurloo, president of commercial engines at Pratt & Whitney. “Our GTF engine will power this growth while delivering industry-leading fuel efficiency and sustainability benefits for single-aisle aircraft.” The RTX business said it expects to complete the purchase agreement in the third quarter of the year.

The digital flip-through issues of AIN’s award-winning Farnborough Airshow News are now available online. It’s a great way to quickly scan the news from Farnborough 2024, whether you’re attending the show or watching from afar.